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New York Times Tumbles as Abramson Is Abruptly Replaced

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- New York Times(NYT - Get Report) was tumbling Wednesday as the publisher said it was replacing Jill Abramson as executive editor with Dean Baquet, the newspaper's managing editor.

The company, in a statement, didn't cite a reason for the change. A story that ran on the newspaper's Web site said "the reasons for the switch were not immediately clear." Shares were falling 4.1% to $15.12.

Abramson, 60, the newspaper's first female executive editor, will give way to Baquet, a Pulitizer Prize-winning investigative journalist, who becomes the New York Times' first African-American editor. While executive editor, the Times launched a digital-subscription pay-model, introducing new online products such as its premium Times Insider service. She also oversaw coverage of the National Security Agency and investigations into corruption among leaders of China's Communist Party.

Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the publisher and chairman of New York Times Company, said in a statement that "Jill Abramson has my sincere thanks for not just preserving and extending the excellence of our news report during her time as executive editor, but also for inspiring her colleagues to adjust their approach to how we deliver the news."

Sulzberger announced the change to senior editors prior to informing the full newsroom around 2:30 p.m. New York time, the newpaper said.

Baquet, 57, a former editor of the Los Angeles Times, was hired by the Times in March 2007 as its Washington bureau chief. During the 1990s, he was an investigative reporter and national editor for The New York Times in New York and Washington, DC. .